FREAK OF THE WEEK
Photography by: Dane Singleton
The last two years have been challenging for everyone. But the music industry seems to be on top of the list of the hardest hit. Musician and audio engineer Jason Norris saw his life come to a halt when Covid hit. But it takes more than a pandemic to squash this guy’s ambition. With new business partner Hein Cooper and refreshed vision his hopes for Studio 5 South Coast are finally coming to fruition.
Nestled in the industrial estate of Kings Point I pulled up to a nondescript green garage door unsure if I was at the right place. No one was in sight. I noticed the kick drum pedal next to the door and realised that was the doorbell. How brilliant! Entering the space was like walking into Dr Who’s Tardis, it kept getting bigger and bigger. Past the entrance is a huge warehouse space filled with drum kits, stage lights, couches, skateboards and other paraphernalia - perfect for band practice or events. Then tucked away is the magic cave... Equipped with even more instruments and a vocal booth, this cosy spacious sound cave was host to screens, mics, mixing desks and whatever else you could possibly need to create a mind-blowing album. This was like a secret wonderland that I could get stuck in for days, my inner PJ Harvey was busting to grab a guitar and wail into a microphone. Unfortunately, I wasn’t here for me… It was time to find out more about the man in the headphones.
What? At nine you started writing songs before you even learned to play properly?
Yep, I was so into it, I just wanted to write my own songs. I had one guitar lesson and that was it, I never wanted to go again. As a kid, I was naturally keen to crack on and learn to play stuff but this teacher just talked the whole time about what it meant to learn and play guitar… I was too impatient for what this guy was dealing out. Carlos, my idol from the band, showed me the basic chords and gave me some tips, from then I just listened to music and taught myself. Sadly after two years of friendship, Carlos drowned in Bali and he was gone just like that. It really shattered me, but I am so thankful for the gift of music that he gave me. He was such a down to earth happy guy who I thought he was cool as fuck, he was everything to me.
That is so sad, I could cry! It’s pretty special to be inspired by an individual like that. I would say most people are inspired by a band or music they heard from their parent’s stereo as a kid. To have an interactive experience like that with an individual would have had such a strong impact on you.
Definitely, I wanted to be just like him.
That explains the guitar, but I saw you up on stage playing the drums for Hein Cooper the other day? When did the drums come into
the picture?
This is a weird one, I used to play the oboe in the school orchestra… [laughs] yeah a little left field I know. We had a parent-teacher night and my music teachers said they thought I was struggling on the oboe and thought I might be better off jumping on percussion. I had just gone through the whole process of learning notes and how to read sheet music to suddenly be playing the triangle!
I progressed luckily.... from triangle I went to the snare drum and then finally to the drum kit.
I imagine that was a great skill to learn and would have been helpful with your writing?
It was a great addition to my guitar and singing which I did at home anyway. As a kid your brain is like a sponge, there is no limit to how much stuff you can learn and cram in there. Being able to understand beats and drums helped massively with my writing and producing my own music digitally. In year 11 I released my first song on mp3.com which was the first digital music streaming platform before Spotify and Soundcloud. It went to number 1, which blew me away. I guess not having many friends or social outlets worked in my favour, music was the thing that took all my focus. As I got older and got over my impossible childhood dream of being a rock star, as we all do, I looked into music production. I finished high school and decided to go to Sydney to do a Degree in Audio Engineering at SAE [School of Audio Engineering] and completed my mentorship with Rick Will… Rest in Peace.
Not again! You poor thing. That must have been heavy losing two mentors so soon after forming such close relationships with them.
Yeah, it definitely was, but I carry them closely with me and think of them every time I am creating music. I will be trying to find that sweet EQ [equalisation] spot and suddenly I hear Rick’s voice. It’s actually such a great thing to have, they are always with me and keep my heart warm.
So how did you end up down here on the South Coast?
I opened my first recording studio in Sydney and it was quite successful… but I was doing a lot of work at the time that wasn’t fruitful for me. It just wasn’t giving back to me in the way I had expected it to and I wanted other things. I was doing a lot of X-factor and Australian Idol work, writing songs for other people, but they were songs I didn’t want to write so it was wearing me down. I didn’t feel like I was growing personally. I know you have to take stepping stones and do things that are not necessarily in your comfort zone in order to get to where you want to go. However, I just knew that wasn’t what I wanted to be doing. Eventually, I got to that breaking point and I sold the studio and went to work for 301 Studios. During my time there I was working with artists such as The Vines, Cold Play, Seconds of Summer and Delta Goodrem which was cleansing but after a year it I still wasn’t feeling it. My wife is actually from Bawley Point and we would come down from Sydney often to visit her family and one day I just said fuck it… why don’t we move down the coast?
How did you meet your wife if she was from Bawley and you were living in Sydney?
Funny story [laughs] I was in Kings Cross and had just left a club and was eating a kebab (as you do after a big night out) and she jumped out of a cab and I randomly asked her if she wanted a bite? ... She said yes! She had just moved back from Darwin where she was a local radio host and yeah things went from there. After about a year of friendship, we went to a steakhouse for dinner and she ordered pasta. I knew from that moment she was right for me. I mean who orders pasta from a steakhouse?? I loved that! After a period of time of being stagnant, we moved down here in 2013 and I started to fall back in love with music and reconnect with my roots. I started to get back into writing and started contacting other producers to co-write the sort of songs I wanted to do. I felt alive again.
Did you think you were going to get back into it when you moved down here or did it happen organically?
Definitely organically, I had no plans. I was so happy being back in my bedroom again getting back to basics. Just using my experience, skills, laptop and equipment and just making music. Being in my own insular world. Not even trying to release it, just falling back in love with it.
As a side hustle, I understand you’re a wedding singer? Was that a part of your re-birth?
No, not at all. That was later on. I have only been doing that for a few years. It was a plan B to be able to financially support myself whilst working on other musical conquests. I am right in the middle of the wedding season now and I have worked really hard at promoting myself. Each year that will continue to build up. I am aiming toward one to two weddings a week which will financially support me for the other five days dedicated to my music production. I need to have that balance to remain inspired and motivated.
I guess that’s the biggest thing, hey, if you don’t have a relationship with what you are creating… it becomes soulless.
Yeah exactly, and I guess I thought if I met the right person to go into business with again I would consider it but it would take something pretty special. I wasn’t hunting it though. My strengths are in production and engineering so when Hein [Cooper] came along it was kind of perfect as I could step away from songwriting as that is his forte. It has been working really well!
So tell me... how did you get involved with Hein Cooper? I imagine he is busy travelling around performing all over the place being a superstar. How did you cross paths?
Oh no, here we go... Embarrassing situation! I first made contact with him when he was touring Canada and America. This was during my anti-music regime and I was working in sales at Flight Centre in Ulladulla. He contacted me to change a flight for him, however, I accidentally cancelled it instead. It was a pretty stressful introduction! This poor guy is stuck overseas with no money and can’t get to his video shoot! So yeah… we didn’t start off on the best foot. Over time he would come to Flight Centre to book flights as he lives locally and we got to know each other and the stigma of being ‘the guy that cancels flights’ eventually faded!
We really got to know each other when the pandemic hit. Travel was no longer a part of life so Flight Centre was off and I was working at Pilgrims Cafe in Milton. Hein was landlocked down here and would come into the Cafe regularly. One day I suggested we do some studio time together and write some music. I loved his songs and the idea of recording and producing together was something I was excited about. Since that conversation, we have recorded a whole album for him which is currently unreleased. It has been great working with someone who has a wealth of experience and knowledge of touring the world and we could put our ego’s aside and work with no questions, just trust and get into it. He is so humble and he has re-inspired me on my musical journey. After working on his album he expressed an interest in the studio, as my business partner at the time had left to work on other projects. Hein and I had different strengths but a similar vision so together we had plenty to offer to the industry. Teaming up seemed like the perfect thing to do.
How accessible and affordable is it for people to record and create music? I always thought it was a huge expense and people would
need thousands.
Not at all. Instead of going out on a Saturday night drinking with friends you can spend that same amount of money here, recording and developing your ideas and getting a sense of fulfilment. It’s so easy to fall into that hole where you are working 9-5 but you need to have something else, you can’t survive without a goal. That’s one of the greatest things I get out of my work here, I feel that when people walk away from here they have a purpose and everything they do will feed that. It doesn’t matter if they are flipping burgers for their day job because it’s all working towards what they love in life which is harnessing their creativity. My biggest mantra in life is “be the light you want to see in the world” and that’s something I have cultivated from my experience of shutting down emotionally and existing soullessly. You can’t live like that.
That leads us to the future vision for Studio 5 South Coast. It seems to have established itself in the community nicely as a pillar of collaboration and connection. How do you see this space evolving in the years to come?
I want to keep our doors open and I want people to come in and express themselves in a creative way. Whether that’s through performance or recording - we are here. I think it’s important for small communities to have places like this to come to. We are here to help and foster the upcoming talent as well as produce international and bigger acts. Now travel is possible again a lot of artists are looking for a tucked away recording studio in paradise to create their next album. We are excited that we can offer that again. Grassroots support is key to the music industry in regional areas and we are happy to be that for this community.
Freak of The Week is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
Thanks for having me Jase! It’s great to finally get in here... it’s been a long time coming. I can see by the look on your face that right here is obviously your favourite place to be. However, if you are away from the studio where is your go-to spot around town?
If you need some time away from it all to clear your head, where is your happy place?
My happy place is definitely Bawley Point Beach. It’s my favourite place in the world. It is the quintessential Australian landscape. The beautiful trees all the way to the coast, gorgeous water and that ruggedness that I really love. That’s where I usually go, just switch off and enjoy the view.
This hasn’t always been your favourite place though. From what I understand you have had quite an interesting journey.
Where are you originally from?
I have lived all over. If I had to say I was originally from somewhere I would say that place is Perth. I was born in Melbourne but when I was three my family moved to Perth for two years... But I spent 10 years of my youth growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Wow, that must have been hectic!
Yeah, it was pretty hectic. I went to the third-largest school in the world, there were about 5000 students that spanned three campuses. My dad designed oil rigs and got a big job over there, so that’s where I did most of my schooling. This was until 1996. After that everything got a bit scary. There were demonstrations and riots over the change of the Presidency and foreigners were being murdered so we got evacuated. Everyone I knew and loved was being ushered onto buses and taken to the airport. We were flown to Singapore where we all lived for six months to finish our schooling. Then back to Perth. I stayed there until the age of 24 when I decided I needed a change of scenery.
I had been playing in a punk band and doing the whole gig thing but I wanted to take my music more seriously and I wanted to get into production and recording. So I booked a one-way ticket to Sydney, even though I had nowhere to go. I flew in with a mate and we were going to start a band [laughs] you know the whole big dream thing… in the big smoke!
Ah yes, that old trick... It sounds like music came into your life from external influences, not from a family of musicians?
In Jakarta, we were living in a migrant mining community through my Dad’s work and a large portion of the community were American. The Americans were at the top of the food chain and ran the hierarchy, so as a little Aussie kid I was far from cool and got bullied a lot at school. I didn’t have many friends and I relied on my family and the people I met through them. Anyway, my sister was dating a guy in a band that played at the Hard Rock Cafe and one night I met the guitarist Carlos and became friends with him. I just thought he was so cool, the way he looked on stage, the way he would hold his guitar, the soundcheck, the lights, the whole thing... I was like “fuck yes!” I asked my parents to buy me a guitar and that was it! I was up and writing.